“Same-day registration is critical to boosting voter turnout, especially among Black, brown, low-income, and immigrant communities, and arbitrary voter registration deadlines should not be a barrier to exercising the right to vote,” she said. “I urge my State House colleagues to swiftly reverse course.”
“Even if a study happens, we’re just back where we are today and we start over,” Elugardo said, later adding, “The increases in turnout that we’re codifying today have been concentrated in communities that don’t include people who are Black, indigenous and other people of color.”
“House leadership and members must vote to include same-day registration and strong jail-based voting reforms in the VOTES Act so that we can guarantee that no eligible voter who wants to participate in our democratic process gets turned away. Then, it’s time for all of us to roll up our sleeves and work on the harder, and year-round, task of increasing the number of people who want to participate in the first place.”
“Eighteen other states have same day registration, I believe that Massachusetts should be at least the 19th at this point in time,” Spilka said on Boston Public Radio Tuesday. “Too bad, we should have been number one earlier, but at least we should be doing it. I believe we should be doing anything to help people who want to vote.”
“Secretary Galvin does not think further study of Election Day registration is necessary, and he was not consulted on this requirement,” Galvin spokeswoman Deb O’Malley said in a statement to the News Service in response to questions about his point of view. “He strongly supports moving forward as soon as possible with Election Day or same day registration, which is why he included it in his election reform proposal a year ago.”
“Thirty elected representatives from Cambridge, Amesbury, Boston, Everett, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Newburyport, Newton, Rowley, Somerville, Wakefield, Watertown, Winchester, and Worcester sent a letter to Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority general manager Steve Poftak Thursday calling on the agency to make it easier for them to create fare-free bus lines.”
“Dedicating the money in our state constitution is the strongest way possible to ensure that the revenue raised by the Fair Share Amendment is spent on essential investments in education and transportation,” the coalition [Raise Up Mass] said in a statement. The group said money is needed as Massachusetts recovers from the pandemic, and added, “Massachusetts families deserve an honest debate and they deserve the stronger economy we can provide them with through the additional revenue raised by the Fair Share Amendment.”
“That’s an all-time high for Boston, which has long ranked among the priciest cities in the country but typically lagged behind the Bay Area — where the weather and booming tech scene pushed pre-pandemic real estate prices into the stratosphere.”
“It really struck me that … the best solution we had in our community to a situation that the caregivers couldn’t control was to call in armed police officers,” she [State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa] said. Police officers “are not the people to call when your kid is having a meltdown, or at least they shouldn’t be.”
“Good bills often idle on Beacon Hill, and this one, perhaps because it would generate a knee-jerk anti-immigrant reaction, has remained stubbornly in limbo. But there’s a simple reality to consider: Undocumented workers are here in abundance and often driving to their jobs. Let’s make our roads safer for everyone in the Commonwealth.”
“In a state whose leaders once helped shape the foundational principles of this democracy, there should be no room for halfhearted measures for, or delay on, voting reform.” A great editorial from the Globe — and, alas, many Democratic state reps answered the titular question with a resounding “NO”
“To put it simply, restoring trust requires taxing the rich. The world — every country in it — must demand the rich pay their fair share,” the letter states. “Tax us, the rich, and tax us now.”
“In Massachusetts 34 percent of those serving life without parole are Black, yet Black people comprise only 9 percent of the state’s population. Massachusetts ranks first in the nation for racial disparities in incarceration rates of Hispanic residents, and 12th for Black residents. This is a racial justice issue and our Commonwealth’s overuse of life-without-parole sentences is disproportionately impacting Black and Brown families and communities.”
“Putnam Investments CEO Bob Reynolds gave $200,000 to the cause, making him the biggest donor to the opposition campaign as of Dec. 31, according to campaign finance documents filed with the state on Thursday.” He clearly can afford to pay his fair share.
President Biden, Senator Warren, Senator Markey, all 9 of our US Representatives, and all 37 Democratic members of the MA Senate support allowing eligible voters to register or update their registration at the polls, and yet the MA House remains undemocratically opposed.
During that floor debate, several House Democrats—Assistant Majority Leader Mike Moran (D-Brighton), Rep. Danielle Gregoire (D-Marlborough), Rep. Mike Day (D-Stoneham), Rep. Tackey Chan (D-Quincy), Rep. Kip Diggs (D-Barnstable), Rep. Joan Meschino (D-Hull), Rep. Dan Hunt (D-Dorchester), and Rep. Kathy LaNatra (D-Kingston)—spoke against implementing Same Day Registration or Election Day Registration (terms often used interchangeably, but in the context different as to whether or not the early voting period would be included for at-the-polls registration), delivering remarks filled with specious arguments and factual inaccuracies. Their colleagues have given similarly specious defenses of the vote to constituents afterwards. Let’s go through them.
Bad Argument #1: We are already a leader on voting rights.
“When I think about what we have done — pre-registration, where we allow our young kids ages 16 and 17 to pre-register so they automatically are registered — you can go online right now. We require the secretary of state to have an online portal where you can register to vote online. It takes approximately 12 to 15 minutes to register to vote online on your phone. If you’re moving and you need to change your address or change your voter registration address, you can do it online. You can follow your ballot online, much like FedEx lets you track your package. We’ve also done election day audits and early voting by mail. All of these are part of the package we should be very proud to talk about in this Legislature. The very last thing we did, automatic voter registration, might be one of the most impactful pieces of legislation we’ve done relative to voters.” (MORAN)
“We have enacted the most sweeping voter protection laws in the nation. No one is more frustrated about what is going on in this country and the attacks on voting.” (GREGOIRE)
“Based on some of the debate some might conclude we’re sitting in the Georgia State House. We seem to be losing sight of the gains we are making. Our constituents expect us to determine what’s best for here, not other states. Here in Massachusetts, we lead the country in making the franchise available and accessible to all eligible voters. No other state offers pre-registration, mail-in voting, outdoor ballot boxes, automatic and online registration and online updating.” (DAY)
“The gentleman from Stoneham was saying some say this is voter suppression. I say give me a break. Massachusetts has been a leader. I think our work today proves that.” (HUNT)
Massachusetts Democrats often like to describe our state as a leader in small “d” democracy, but it’s a claim in desperate need of a reality check. Massachusetts only began allowing early voting, pre-registration, and online registration after the election reform package in 2014 (we were a late adopter). Massachusetts was not the first state to adopt Automatic Voter Registration; we were the 14th. Our 20-day voter registration cutoff puts us to the right of most states. Eight states mail every eligible voter a ballot, going even further than the mail-in voting reforms discussed in Massachusetts (which, to be clear, have lapsed and which did not exist before 2020).
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Vermont, and Washington have Same Day Registration, Automatic Voter Registration, online registration, and all-mail elections (with the equivalent of in-person early voting with the drop-off centers). DC, Illinois, Maryland, and Michigan have Same Day Registration, Automatic Voter Registration, online registration, in-person early voting, and no-excuse absentee voting. So our current laws, or even the bill passed by the House, do not make us a leader.
But what if we were? What if our election laws were the best in the country? Simply “being better than other states” is not a sufficient benchmark; the question is always whether we are doing all that we can. And we’re not.
Bad Argument #2: It is a solution in search of a problem.
“The very last thing we did, automatic voter registration, might be one of the most impactful pieces of legislation we’ve done relative to voters. We have an opt out system, so when you engage with the Registry of Motor Vehicles or other agencies, you have to tell them you don’t want to be registered. I can tell you when we passed that vote, I won’t divulge names, one of the advocacy groups said to me, “You’re making it very, very challenging for us to make the case for same day voter registration.” I agreed with her then, but I think we have something to do in that direction, and that is what this further amendment is about.” (MORAN)
“I rise in support of the further amendment for several reasons, not the least of which is that the underlying proposals are solutions looking for problems. We do not have a voter registration problem, we have a perception problem here. This past November, in the election, that was historic, only 28.9 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. In the last municipal election before COVID in Marlborough, the turnout was 25 percent… However, enacting solutions to non-existent problems does nothing to change the national discourse. It creates issues and opens us to unprecedented criticism.” (GREGOIRE)
People move, and that includes moving close to Election Day. Especially when our state primary is so close to a major move-in day in Boston (i.e., September 1). The act of moving close to Election Day, or even being evicted close to Election Day, can lead to disenfranchisement if people are far away from their old polling location, and that is an injustice.
Moreover, these arguments are ignorant of the many stresses that working-class people face: planning more than 20 days (or even 10 days) in advance can be difficult for those balancing family commitments and multiple jobs with erratic work schedules, not to mention an array of bills and other responsibilities. Missing deadlines is common (the legislature does it all the time), and managing a deadline that far in advance can be difficult for those with ADHD (one Election Day is easier to get a handle of than the many steps that need to be juggled prior). None of that should make someone less worthy of participation.
Imagine as well how likely of a scenario it could be that someone thought they had registered but, indeed, hadn’t (they already get to fill out a provisional ballot, so why not let them register? ) Or imagine if someone’s pre-marriage or pre-divorce name, or deadname, were the one on the rolls, differing from what they use now and what their ID shows. Or, since poll workers are human, imagine if there was a clerical error in the books. Why should none of this be able to be fixed?
Automatic Voter Registration is great, but it will never capture everyone, both for the reasons stated above and for the fact that not everyone would be interfacing with a designated agency (not everyone has a license!).
That legislators would not see a need for Election Day Registration shows that they are not talking with their constituents with the greatest need. And that’s a problem.
Bad Argument #3: It doesn’t even lead to any demonstrable increases in turnout.
“To the contrary of the lady before me, I found the National Conference of State Legislatures, research from them has concluded that there is no demonstrable increase in voter participation in states that have same day or election day registration.” (GREGOIRE)
From the very website referenced: “There is strong evidence that same-day and Election Day registration increases voter turnout, but the extent of the impact is difficult to conclude. Immediately following the implementation of SDR, states usually see a boost in voter numbers. SDR states also tend to outperform other states in terms of turnout percentages. Many states that have implemented SDR have historically produced higher voter numbers, making changes hard to gauge. Multiple studies place the effect between an increase of 3% to 7%, with an average of a 5% increase.”
Bad Argument #4: We haven’t done the research, and we don’t know the cost and the impact. We need to study this.
“Now we come to the further amendment. The further amendment would call on the secretary of state to create a report. One of the things that having some institutional knowledge gives you is you have some sense of where this comes and where this is going. For years, it was something we talked about, it was debated in bills, but it wasn’t something that we really took in a serious way and did any real prudent research on.” (MORAN)
“When you’re talking about paying for same-day voter registration or the mechanisms you need to put in place and what that means to 351 cities and towns that range in size from 89, which is Gosnell, to Boston, it means very different things to very different cities and towns. What this report would hopefully do is identify some of those challenges that we would have.” (MORAN)
“I think it’s important to get it right and reject the argument this is suppression. It’s not a study in procedure only. It’s a true study. We have 351 cities and towns because when they were founded, individuals in one town got fed up with government, went to the next plot of land and started over. I think it’s important to spend some time and get down to the facts and get it right. The argument that this is voter suppression is not unlike Mona Lisa Vito. It does not hold water.” (HUNT)
The fact that the House has done no research on this issue, if true, is damning. The Joint Committee on Election Laws held a hearing on the VOTES Act in May of last year. If cost were a genuine concern, the Committee had ample time to investigate that question. Why does it exist if not to perform due diligence on bills?
Moreover, Same Day Registration has been filed each session at least going back to the 2000s, and it was voted on by the MA Senate in 2007 and 2014 (in both cases, the House refused to take it up). Why did the Joint Committee on Election Laws never collect such desired information in the hearings or meetings in the past? The only logical conclusion is that they never wanted to do it, and that they still don’t.
A “study” that has no deadline and no funding is not a study. Sending a bill or amendment to “study” is a common procedural trick in the Legislature to avoid having to formally vote yes or no. It is done all the time. The House routinely uses “further amendments” (which send an amendment to study) to nullify Republican messaging amendments that Democratic members are afraid to vote on. It gives people the ability to deflect from criticism of having opposed the thing itself: they didn’t oppose it; they just asked for a study. It is an insult to everyone’s intelligence.
“I had a chat with the clerk with the city of Marlborough and his assertion was that if we implement same day or election day voting in addition to codifying emergency measures, the additional burden would be a logistical nightmare he was unsure of how it would work.” (GREGOIRE)
“A lot has been said today about clerks. Yes, we do read every single thing you send us. Reading the letters and the communications from the clerk and speaking with the women, the clerks, in my communities, they actually share our commitment to increasing voter access and engaging voters. These women are trained and knowledgeable in every facet of elections, including the parts you don’t see. They are committed to ensuring integrity, making sure it is a smooth easy process. They do a fantastic job. If they are the ones reaching out and asking us to just take a small pause, I think we owe it to them to listen to the people who do this work. I’m asking you to join me in supporting the further amendment.” (MESCHINO)
“In speaking with the clerks in my district, same day registration would be an overwhelming task to add to what is already a daunting process.” (LANATRA)
To the contrary, the Town Clerks’ Association expressed support for Election Day Registration (see their letter here). They disagreed with allowing voters to register at the polls during early voting. We can debate whether or not their opposition has merit (it doesn’t; other states have handled it fine), but the legislators are clearly disingenuous in invoking clerks to cover for themselves.
Bad Argument #6: This would be burdensome for staffing.
“In our caucus earlier, the gentlelady from Gloucester brought up some of the staffing issues and staffing levels that would have to happen in the state to do this. Also brought up was training people to know how to do this correctly. There’s more than 2,000 precincts in Massachusetts and approximately 1,220 polling locations, and there are 391 early voting locations. All of those would need to be looked at to see how they could appropriately carry out the process of same-day voter registration. In many of those locations, they’ve never even considered it.” (MORAN)
“Other issues we need to consider: bilingual residence. How many additional staff do we need across the commonwealth to make sure those people coming in have their voices heard?” (MORAN)
“Those who spend quite a bit of time at polling locations know that there is a challenge regarding staffing election days. The expansion of early voting prompted a lot of questions about staffing. Challenges were met and overcome but it took some time. The same issue applies to linguistic access to polling places, people that you can find on election day to work polls, to talk to people who don’t speak English to help them to vote. I want to have a system where no one is disenfranchised or one that makes people feel small when they have the opportunity to cast a vote.” (CHAN)
If legislators had good faith concerns about staffing, they would have asked for an analysis last year or years prior and made the necessary appropriation. The feigned concern for overworked small towns is undermined by the fact that the House made early voting requirements more burdensome for small municipalities than the Senate did (see the chart below). Having more early voting hours is, obviously, better than having fewer ones, but it demonstrates that staffing is not a genuine concern.
Furthermore, our poll workers, on whom our democracy depends, have to prepare for full turnout every election. We never get close to that unfortunately; turnout more than 50% is often deemed impressive. But what that means is that going into Election Day, we need to assume that everyone who has not yet voted by mail or voted early could show up to vote. The additional voters that EDR could turn out will be small in comparison to that (although meaningful in terms of election results).
Bad Argument #7: We do not have the technology.
“Internet accessibility was brought up by the gentleman from Quincy. There are parts of this commonwealth we have yet to get appropriate access. Are we going to have a closed system, where only clerks are limited to using that system? Or is it going to be held in the cloud? These are lots of challenging things we’ve never really thought about when it comes to same-day voter registration.” (MORAN)
“We do not have a plan before us to equip them with technology and access to the internets [sic] they would need to implement these proposals. We do not have a sense of what it would cost. Our clerks describe a normal election day, charitably, as a nonstop fire drill, sometimes ending days later. Clerks have not been provided with information about these changes. This amendment would do just that. You want same day or election-day voting? Let’s figure it out. That’s what this amendment does. As enshrined in this bill voters may register up to the day before.” (DAY)
Maine has had Election Day Registration since the 1970s, and New Hampshire has since the 1990s. We are no less technologically advanced. It is not a question of technology; it is a question of political will.
Moreover, the small towns in Massachusetts that have bad Internet access (digital inequities are real) are places where voting likely occurs at one location: their city hall—a place that will have decent Internet access. (Additionally, Rep. Day’s comment that “voters may register up to the day before” is factually untrue; the underlying bill only narrows the cutoff period to ten days.)
Bad Argument #8: What if it leads to more people voting in a pandemic?
“What about queuing in line, where there are many people who want to vote but the facility has a queue that can’t build up? What about COVID? What about the next variant? How serious is that going to be? We all took that vote last year. Our clerks and the people that administer our elections are essential workers to us. These are things that we have not really fleshed out or considered when thinking about same-day voter registration.” (MORAN)
First of all, this frames higher turnout as an inherently bad thing, a disappointing thing to hear from an elected.
Second of all, see the comments about staffing earlier.
Third, isn’t the very purpose of mail-in voting and early voting to spread out when voting occurs to avoid lines? This bill is creating less work on the day of by doing so.
Bad Argument #9: People should have to register in advance; it’s a vital step of responsibility and a part of political education.
“It is a privilege and it comes with responsibilities and efforts in registration, in a timely way. We agree that they are benchmarks of our democracy. Forward thinking people of all races walked over the trenches in the South to get here to vote. I am a professional boxer but to have to fight on same day voting is a bit much. I will fight for anyone in the state to vote but I feel that they have to register in time. They have from now until 10 days before our voting day. And then we can give 10 days to mail in or walk in to vote. We have plenty of time to vote and that is the best way to do it.” (Diggs)
“I have a different perspective as a person who in his 20s stood on street corners to register voters. This was some 25 or so years ago today. And in Quincy at the time it was predominantly Chinese and people of color. We had to engage them one on one. I didn’t do this sitting at a fair, it was a direct approach for engagement. Voter education is a large part of voter registration and the need to explain why it is important to register. This is very time consuming. Since my days of registering people in person, new ways have come up. The ability to vote online which at the time websites were not used that much back then, but it is very commonplace now. I never thought that we would have automatic voter registration through the RMV. There are many new ways to cross different barriers. I am concerned about the impact on the underlying amendment because the engagement of registering to vote is a one on one experience. To have the linguistic ability present at the polls to explain to people how to manage a ballot, how to register is important.” (CHAN)
To some extent, the response is the same in #2 about the need that Election Day Registration fills, especially among BIPOC communities, working-class communities, immigrant communities, young people, and renters.
But both of these comments ignore the simple fact that figuring out that an election is happening, finding your polling place, and doing some research on candidates—all things that people who show up at the polls have done—is a demonstration of the very responsibility and political education that they are demanding. To Rep. Chan’s remarks, the work of civic engagement is year-round, and that reality is not an excuse for turning anyone away from the polls.
Bad Argument #10: This would allow voter fraud.
“From my conversation with constituents, there is a sense that same day or election day voting could give a fog of potential nefariousness. I have faith in our clerks and the secretary to have fair elections but I do have concerns over that sentiment, which I believe is false. I’ve heard from constituents who are looking for this underlying amendment and numerous who have great concern.” (HUNT)
It should be beneath any Democrat, and any elected official, to dignify voter fraud myths that have been debunked time and time again and are only ever invoked as a justification for racist and exclusionary policies.
Bad Argument #11: We didn’t have a veto-proof (two-thirds majority) for Election Day Registration, and Baker would have vetoed it.
Several state reps have said this in response to constituents, arguing that they themselves don’t oppose Election Day Registration but that the votes aren’t there in the caucus and they wanted to do something. None of them are willing to name the colleagues that are the roadblocks; they just seek to absolve themselves of all blame.
It is unclear why a study with no funding and no deadline that is never intended to actually happen is the solution to a political question. Given the centralization of power in the House, if the votes are wanted for something, the votes are typically corralled one way or another (when one is in charge, one has many tools at one’s disposal). Framing a fake study as a “consensus, second-best outcome” is an insult to the intelligence of voters, and it also conveniently ignores how many of the people who voted for this study are vehement opponents of Election Day Registration (indeed, almost every Republican voted for it, with the only ones opposing it doing it because they thought even a study was too much).
A Democratic supermajority should not lower its ambitions to cater to a Republican governor, especially now.
Bad Argument #12: If we allowed people to register to vote on Election Day, then people in my district I don’t know—such as college students, recent graduates, renters, working-class people, immigrants, members of BIPOC communities, etc.—might show up to voteand not for me.
No one said this out loud, but it’s the dominant reason why many are opposed. And if they want people not to show up to vote for someone else, they should do the work of engaging with their constituents and welcoming new ones. Indeed, isn’t that what representative democracy is about?
The House’s version of the bill (H.4359), as reported out of Ways & Means on Wednesday, dropped Same Day Registration from the VOTES Act, a basic voting reform that was in both the Senate bill and the original version as filed at the start of the legislative session. The House also left out the jail-based voting reforms that the Senate added during floor debate, but they added similar language back through an amendment (more on that later) .
The bill made permanent the pandemic-era expanded vote-by-mail and early voting reforms (which the House had allowed to lapse by taking so long to bring up a bill) and reinforced provisions in the 2018 Automatic Voter Registration bill that Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin has refused to implement (such as joining the Electronic Registration Information Center, an interstate compact that helps states keep up-to-date voting rolls).
That’s all good and important. But when 20 states and Washington, D.C., have Same Day Registration, allowing any qualified resident of the state to register to vote and cast a ballot at the same time, and we still have an arbitrary and exclusionary voter registration cutoff, it’s simply not good enough. When we see democracy under attack around the country, we shouldn’t be settling when it comes to strengthening it.
Maine has had Same Day Registration since the 1970s, and New Hampshire since the 1990s. So the technology is there. What has been lacking is the political will—in the MA House (the MA Senate passed Same Day Registration in 2014 and 2007 before).
Same Day Registration is one of the most proven voting reforms. A recent study from Demos found that, in states with Same Day Registration, Black and Latinx voter turnout was up to 17 percent higher than in states without. A Government Accountability Office report from 2016 showed that Same Day Registration tended to yield a 5 percent bump in turnout. Studies have also shown pronounced increases in youth turnout from Same Day Registration.
People in this country move a lot. And that is especially true for young people and Black and Latinx people who are disproportionately renters. And when our state primary falls right after the major September 1st move-in day, that’s a recipe for disenfranchisement.
That’s why Democrats nationally have been strong champions of Same Day Registration. It was included in the Freedom to Vote Act, which had the support of both of MA’s two senators (Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren), all 9 of our US Representatives, and President Joe Biden. When West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema joined Republicans in opposing a change to the filibuster to pass this voting reform package, they did so because of a misplaced regard for the filibuster, not any stated opposition to the underlying bill.
But back to Massachusetts. Three relevant amendments were filed: Rep. Carmine Gentile (D-Sudbury)’s amendment #5 (Election Day Registration), Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa (D-Northampton)’s amendment #11 (Same Day Voter Registration), and Rep. Nika Elugardo (D-Jamaica Plain)’s amendment #40 (An Act To Promote Same-Day Voter Registration). Elugardo’s amendment, with the strong backing of the Black & Latino Legislative Caucus, was intended as a compromise by focusing on Election Day Registration in particular–namely, allowing voters to register or update their registration on Election Day but not during the early voting period.
Gentile’s amendment was withdrawn early on Thursday, but after voting down several right-wing Republican amendments and passing one good jail-based voting amendment (more on all that later), Assistant Majority Leader Mike Moran (D-Brighton), a longstanding opponent of Same Day Registration (his district is home to Boston University and Boston College, full of students who could benefit from such a law), pulled a dirty procedural trick to block consideration of Election Day Registration. Specifically, he filed a “further amendment” to Sabadosa’s amendment #11, replacing its content with a study commission on Same Day Registration. When our neighbors in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut already have such a law, we do not need to “study” it more. It’s long overdue for us to just implement it.
In at times rambling speeches, Moran, Rep. Danielle Gregoire (D-Marlborough), Rep. Tackey Chan (D-Quincy), Rep. Kip Diggs (D-Barnstable), Rep. Dan Hunt (D-Dorchester), Rep. Mike Day (D-Stoneham), Rep. Kathy LaNatra (D-Kingston), and Rep. Joan Meschino (D-Hull) argued that our towns are too technologically backwards, our voters too stupid, and our laws too perfect to pass Same Day Registration of any kinds.
Rep. Nika Elugardo gave a passionate speech about the importance of Election Day Registration to racial justice, referencing the aforementioned study on its impact on Black and Latinx voters, and spoke of her own experiences with disenfranchisement due to past housing instability. As she pointed out, the amendment would block any consideration of her own amendment #40, as the Clerk would deem the two amendments “too similar” even though—as she noted—the town clerks who have opposed a full Same Day Registration law have supported Election Day Registration. The procedural step from Moran was, in other words, a cowardly attempt to avoid debate and discussion.
Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven (D-Somerville), Rep. Tami Gouveia (D-Acton), and Rep. Jamie Belsito (D-Topsfield) also spoke eloquently on the floor in support of Election Day Registration. Rep. Uyterhoeven traced the history of restrictive voting laws to the Jim Crow era, emphasizing the importance of strong voting reforms that center communities of color. She moreover noted that EDR is in the state Democratic Party platform and that living up to the party’s own platform is essential to combating voter cynicism. Rep. Gouveia spoke about how so many legislators have no idea how chaotic the daily lives of their constituents are, and how those facing housing instability or juggling multiple jobs (as well as families) could miss such a voter registration deadline. And Rep. Belsito spoke of how, on the recent campaign trail, strengthening our democracy was one of the top demands of her constituents.
The ultimate vote was closer than most votes in the House tend to be: 93 to 64—the 93 voting to block consideration of Election Day Registration and the 64 voting for it to have a chance at debate and a vote. It is, in many ways, a proxy for the vote on EDR itself, although the three Republicans voting NO likely did so because they thought even a study was too much. You can see the vote below. The 61 Democrats who bucked House Leadership deserve your thanks.
In a demonstration of the power of House Democratic Leadership to determine outcomes, 32 Democratic state reps who voted to block Election Day Registration were co-sponsors of the original VOTES Act…which included Election Day Registration…..
Rep. Jim Arciero (D-Westford) Rep. John Barrett (D-North Adams) Rep. Natalie Blais (D-Sunderland) Rep. Antonio Cabral (D-New Bedford) Rep. Dan Cahill (D-Lynn) Rep. Dan Carey (D-Easthampton) Rep. Tackey Chan (D-Quincy) Rep. Ed Coppinger (D-West Roxbury) Rep. Josh Cutler (D-Duxbury) Rep. Mike Day (D-Stoneham) Rep. Marcos Devers (D-Lawrence) Rep. Kip Diggs (D-Barnstable) Rep. Michelle DuBois (D-Brockton) Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante (D-Gloucester) Rep. Bill Galvin (D-Canton) Rep. Tom Golden (D-Lowell) Rep. Ken Gordon (D-Bedford) Rep. Rich Haggerty (D-Woburn) Rep. Liz Malia (D-Jamaica Plain) Rep. Paul McMurtry (D-Dedham) Rep. Rady Mom (D-Lowell) Rep. Frank Moran (D-Lawrence) Rep. Brian Murray (D-Milford) Rep. Alice Peisch (D-Wellesley) Rep. Angelo Puppolo (D-Springfield) Rep. Jeff Roy (D-Franklin) Rep. Dave Robertson (D-Tewksbury) Rep. Adam Scanlon (D-North Attleborough) Rep. Alan Silvia (D-Fall River) Rep. Tom Stanley (D-Waltham) Rep. Bill Straus (D-Mattapoisett) Rep. Thomas Walsh (D-Peabody)
Quick note: If every single woman of color in the MA House votes one way on a voting rights amendment, and you vote the other way…maybe check yourself before saying “MA isn’t like Georgia.”
Other Amendments of Note
The House vote down six right-wing amendments from members of the Republican caucus:
Obstructing the Implementation of Mail-In Voting: The House voted 128-30 against an amendment (#6) from Republican Minority Leader Brad Jones (R-North Reading) to require an opinion from the MA Supreme Judicial Court on whether the mail-in voting provisions of the bill are constitutional. The vote was mostly partly line, with “Democrat” Colleen Garry (D-Dracut) joining Republicans and unaffiliated Susannah Whipps (U-Athol) joining Democrats.
Increasing Penalties for Non-Existent Voter Fraud: The House voted 126 to 32 against another amendment from Jones (#8) to double the penalties for voter fraud, a thing that does not happen. The vote looked like the one above, but with “Democrats” Dave Robertson (D-Wilmington) and Jeff Turco (D-Winthrop) joining Garry and Republicans.
Ending the Mailing of VBM Applications: The House voted 129 to 29 against an amendment (#17) from Rep. Jim Kelcourse (R-Amesbury) to strike the language of the bill requiring the Secretary of the Commonwealth to mail all registered voters an application to vote by mail. It was party line, with Whipps joining Democrats.
Undermining Vaccination Requirements: The House voted 127 to 31 against an amendment (#9) from Rep. Peter Durant (R-Spencer) to block any location that ever serves as a polling location or ever offers voter registration paperwork from requiring vaccination for entry. Garry and Robertson joined Republicans, and Whipps joined Democrats.
Requiring Proof of Residence Vote: The House voted 130 to 28 against an amendment (#10) from Rep. Durant to require any voter registration location that also requires proof of vaccination for entry to require proof of residency, which is only ever asked in Massachusetts for first-time voters and not for regular voters. The amendment was seeking to create unnecessary administrative work on Election Day and serve as a protest against vaccination requirements. Rep. Nicholas Boldyga (R-Southwick) inexplicably joined Democrats in voting NO, as did Whipps.
Bloating Police Budgets: The House voted 128 to 29 against an amendment (#34) from Rep. Shawn Dooley (R-Norfolk) to require excessive police detail for dropboxes, out of a desire to fear-monger around the security of vote-by-mail. The vote was party line, with Whipps joining Democrats.
Requiring a Photo ID to Vote: The House voted 126 to 32 against an amendment (#7) from Rep. Paul Frost (R-Auburn) to require voters to show a photo ID at the polls, a common tactic by Republicans to pose roadblocks for low-income voters, especially Black and Latinx ones. Garry, Robertson, and Turco joined Republicans in voting for it, and Whipps joined Democrats in voting against.
And the House passed one progressive amendment: Rep. Liz Miranda (D-Roxbury) and Chynah Tyler (D-Roxbury)’s amendment on Jail Based Voting. Both underscored that we can’t talk about voter suppression or disenfrachisement without acknowledging the most marginalized communities, the disproportionately Black and Latinx individuals currently incarcerated. Individuals incarcerated with non-felony convictions maintain the right to vote in theory, but the vote often doesn’t exist in practice.
The redrafted amendment that received a vote largely adhered to the original, which itself sought to harmonize language with what the Senate passed and what Miranda and Tyler filed as a bill earlier in the session: ensuring that individuals who are incarcerated and currently eligible to vote are provided with the necessary information and materials to do so, creating reporting requirements for houses of corrections, and building voter registration into the re-entry process. It passed overwhelmingly 153 to 5, with five Republicans voting NO (Rep. Donnie Berthiaume of Spencer, Rep. Nicholas Boldgya of Southwick, Rep. Shawn Dooley of Norfolk, Rep. Peter Durant of Spencer, and Rep. Marc Lombardo of Billerica).
The House’s weakened version of the VOTES Act ultimately passed 124 to 34, a mostly party line vote with Reps. Nika Elugardo (D-Jamaica Plain), Tami Gouveia (D-Acton), Russell Holmes (D-Mattapan), and Erika Uyterhoeven (D-Somerville) voting no from the left in protest of the elimination of EDR and Rep. Colleen Garry (“D”-Dracut) joining Republicans in voting no. Unaffiliated Susannah Whipps (U-Athol) joined Democrats in voting yes.
I don’t know what tomorrow’s Wordle will be, but the most important five-letter word in the MA House tomorrow is VOTES.
Why? Because the MA House will finally be taking up the VOTES Act, a voting rights package that makes pandemic-era voting reforms like mail-in voting and early voting permanent.
But there’s a problem. Whereas the Senate’s bill, passed last fall, included Same Day Registration and strong Jail-Based Voting language, the House bill doesn’t.
Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut all have Same Day Registration, and Massachusetts should too. It’s one of the most proven ways to increase voter turnout. Every single Democratic member of the US Congress supports Same Day Registration, so why doesn’t our Democratic supermajority?
And individuals incarcerated with non-felony convictions maintain the right to vote under the law, but that right often doesn’t exist in practice. We are all worse off when anyone’s right to vote is denied.
State representatives have already filed amendments to fix this, but your rep needs to hear from you.
Amendments #5, 11, and 40 (Same Day Registration) would enable voters to register to vote or update their registration on Election Day.
Amendment #13 (Jail Based Voting) strengthens reporting requirements for houses of corrections and builds voter registration into the re-entry process.
Chairman Hinds, Chairman Cusack, and Members of the Joint Committee on Revenue:
My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.
We urge a favorable report for H.2890 and S.1853: An Act providing for climate change adaptation infrastructure and affordable housing investments in the Commonwealth, jointly known as the HERO bill.
The motto for Progressive Mass is “We all do better when we all do better.” If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we are all connected and that we must trust and rely on each other to create the robust, healthy state we all want to live in.
As income inequality skyrockets and housing prices rapidly escalate, exacerbating the housing stability faced by countless families, Massachusetts must take action to ensure that we can still be a place where people can afford to live and thrive at any stage of life. Likewise, as the consequences of climate change become increasingly apparent, we must similarly take bold action to enable us to meet and exceed existing climate goals. But both of these crises cannot be addressed without raising the funds to address these issues.
Raising the deeds excise tax to be more in line with the rest of New England is an easy way to raise some of this much-needed revenue. We cannot afford to pass up this opportunity to add $150,000,000 to our Global Warming Solution Trust Fund to allocate towards climate mitigation and climate adaptation measures and another $150,000,000 towards Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and the Housing Preservation and Stabilization Fund (HPSF).
The HERO Coalition has been an impressive effort uniting housing advocates and climate advocates around shared goals. Indeed, the goals of affordable housing and climate justice are deeply linked, as greening our housing stock is essential to climate mitigation and combating climate change is essential to community stability amidst extreme weather. This bill provides a great opportunity to take action, with long-term positive benefits that ripple across the Commonwealth.
“Mass General Brigham, the state’s largest private employer, put its support behind affordable housing legislation, blaming the housing crisis for contributing to public health disparities in communities and staffing shortages at its hospitals.
The health system submitted testimony Wednesday to the state backing a proposed law that would allow cities and towns to collect a fee on certain real estate transactions to help pay for affordable housing efforts. The legislation has been sitting with the state Legislature since last year, but backing from an influential hospital system with 80,000 employees could give it momentum.”
“The rideshare giant Lyft gave a whopping $14.4 million to a committee supporting the petitions, most of which came in a $13 million donation on Dec. 30, newly released records show. The single contribution is the highest the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance has ever listed in an online database that tracks reporteddonations to campaigns, ballot question coalitions, or other political committees regulated under state law.”
“There’s a lot of agreement on the notion that workers who put themselves in harm’s way during this pandemic deserve recognition — and some extra monetary compensation. But in Massachusetts, so far none of the money the state received from the federal government under the American Rescue Plan has been paid out for that purpose. Meanwhile, a classic Beacon Hill fog has descended on the process of doling out the money, making it hard to tell exactly what’s going on between Governor Charlie Baker and the Legislature.”
“Jails throughout the Pioneer Valley are coping with outbreaks of COVID-19 among their inmate and detainee populations, as well as staff, but so far during the unprecedented spike in cases nationwide due to the omicron variant, no local sheriff’s departments have reported serious illness, hospitalization or death in their facilities.”
“The public has no idea how brutal and violent it can be behind the wall,” Danavian Daniel, one of the named plaintiffs, said in a statement distributed by Prisoners’ Legal Services. He called his experience “terrifying and dehumanizing.”
“While local journalists and their audiences will benefit from this hybrid access, so will other groups of citizens such as those with disabilities, with family or work obligations, with limited transportation, or other circumstances making it difficult to attend government meetings in person. From a press perspective, this legislation is about government transparency and accountability. But it’s also about equity and providing access to all citizens.”
“BPS is not without its problems. But these are problems that can be solved by turning to the community, not by initiating yet another executive leadership retooling. That kind of thinking is lazy and intentionally avoids the core problems facing BPS. You can swap the players up at the top all you want, but the instability created through that process trickles down to parents, students, and teachers, and we’re left exactly where we started, only less engaged and less hopeful for the future. We need to be creating real pathways to parent engagement and empowering parents, students, and teachers to steer us in the right direction. We need to make our district whole, not fracture it with change for the sake of change.”
“The commission’s recommendation to delay action to address this unjust doctrine for two years is dangerous, and means that more communities in Massachusetts—particularly Black and brown communities—will be denied the accountability necessary to heal,” the Boston Democrat said, reiterating that qualified immunity must be abolished “immediately.”
“The nearly $1 billion Automated Fare Collection 2.0 system, already severely delayed and over budget, will allow riders to board buses and trolleys using all doors.” Why are we paying so much on fare collection? #FreeTheT
“I support a statewide vaccine mandate for entry into restaurants, bars, and public spaces,” Markey said in a statement Thursday, adding that, “We need to focus on getting as many people vaccinated and boosted as quickly as possible.”
“First, we are not even close to solving the climate change crisis. We depend too much on cars. In urban areas, we need to encourage the use of public transit in place of cars. Our goal has to be fare-free transit for the entire system, since the only way people will give up their car is if they know they can hop on and off everywhere a bus or train stops.”
“The inequities have continued to plague communities of color and low-income communities across the state,” said Carlene Pavlos, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association. “They continue to be the hardest hit.”
“Across Massachusetts, dozens of cities and towns have said they want to outlaw the use of fossil fuels in newly constructed buildings — considered an easy and effective step toward a carbon-free future…The state’s new climate legislation aimed to do just that, and required the state to come up with a new building code that would allow cities and towns to move ahead…The Baker administration promised a draft by fall 2021 but failed to deliver. And now some climate-concerned legislators want the administration to answer for it.”
“But they should not be exceptions to the rule. Rather, they should be the exemplars — the kind of candidates the Board of Pardons should be looking for as they sort through the dozens of petitions that remain before them from prisoners looking just to have their cases heard. Hearings should not be the rarified events they have come to be during this administration.”
“The bill (H 4340) appropriates $30 million to establish and expand COVID testing sites, with at least $5 million dedicated to expanding vaccination rates among kids ages 5 to 11. The youth vaccination efforts would be focused on communities disproportionately affected by the virus….Another $25 million would go towards “the acquisition and distribution of high-quality personal protective masks for children and faculty in elementary and secondary public school districts.”
“Almost three quarters of Massachusetts voters support free bus service for low income neighborhoods, according to a new poll from MassInc Polling Group…The group polled more than 1,000 voters to gauge consensus on issues including free public transportation and a November ballot measure that would change the state constitution to allow a 4% surtax on any income over $1 million. The revenue generated would go toward public education and transportation…About 70% of those surveyed supported the proposed tax.” Even more, majorities supported every fare-free transit proposal polled.
“Once it became apparent that the United States didn’t have the collective will to slow the virus down — and was more concerned with keeping the machinery of capitalism churning — there were no more banging pots or commercials about the heroism of the people who clean our streets, make our food and take care of us when we’re sick. Now, they’re selfish and lazy and just looking for a handout. There are no more heroes of the pandemic — only villains.”
“Like so many in our communities, I know what it’s like to be unable to afford school lunch, to lose a job and panic about next month’s rent, to live each day breathing in air pollution and to worry about tomorrow as the sea levels continue to rise,” Edwards said in a statement. “Together, with our pain and purpose, we will fight for laws and the social conditions that protect people, communities, and our planet.”
“We know that other cities across the country who have implemented rent stabilization and rent control are seeing it working, are seeing that it doesn’t come with the sky falling and some of the consequences that opponents would have you believe,” Wu said. “It does mean that people are put first instead of profits. It does mean that we are working toward a vision of cities where everyone is welcome and everyone has a home.”
“Let’s finally do away with these barriers to voting and take deliberate steps to increase voter turnout in the Commonwealth. Voters support these reforms and the times demand them. Until the VOTES Act is passed in its entirety, our work remains unfinished.”
“The report included 13 of 14 Massachusetts sheriffs and said they accounted for nearly $2.7 million of the $6 million in potential conflict-of-interest donations across the 48 sheriffs’ departments that were examined. The top Massachusetts recipient in the report was Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald, with $738,000 in donations that the groups deemed an “apparent conflict.” “
“This unconstitutional brutality included beating and kicking prisoners; gouging eyes; grabbing testicles; smashing faces into the ground or wall; deploying Taser guns, pepper ball guns, and other chemical agents; ordering K9s to menace and bite prisoners; and excessively tightening handcuffs and forcing prisoners’ arms into unnatural and painful positions, among other positional torture tactics,” the attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
“Speaking to the Banner, Najimy said her union wants in-school instruction, but that schools should have the option to close temporarily when infections reach a critical point. The ban on remote learning makes in-school instruction worse in schools experiencing COVID outbreaks and the resulting shortages of teachers and other staff, she said.”
“We need to end the gang database,” said Armani White, a Roxbury activist who works with the group Right to the City Vote. “We need to think about how we provide resources and fund initiatives that prevent crime, not keeping databases that are about monitoring Black men.”
“In short, we are facing a full-scale collapse of our child-care system. The Legislature must address this critical issue, taking advantage of federal recovery funds and a state budget surplus to build a more equitable system for young families and for providers, as laid out in the Common Start bill. We can’t miss this one-time chance to build a system that really works.”
“These concerns include lack of access to food and hot water, inadequate medical care, insufficient hygienic maintenance, limited and monitored interactions with counsel, violation of their rights to practice religion, and retaliatory punishment – all of which give us cause for concern about the rights and health of those detained on behalf of ICE at (the jail),” Warren and Markey wrote in the letter.
“And there is no clear, proactive messaging from the state about how we should approach this period of intense interruption. The only messaging is that of blame. It is hard, as someone who has dedicated her life’s work to the education of young people, to not feel angry about the utter vacuum of vision, and the speed with which our leaders seek to point fingers at the people whose daily labor is actually required to keep our schools open, and keep our students safe and supported and learning.”
“For example, the lowest vaccination rates occur in many of the poorest communities, such as Athol (14 percent); Fall River (15 percent); New Bedford (16 percent); Brockton and Springfield (17 percent); Holyoke and Lawrence (24 percent); Haverhill (25 percent); and Lowell (30 percent). Meanwhile, most of the wealthier suburbs show a much higher vaccination rate for this age group. For example, Arlington, Boxborough, Carlisle, Concord, Medfield, Needham, Sherborn, and Wayland have a vaccination rate above 95 percent.”
Chairman Keenan, Chairman Arciero, and Members of the Joint Committee on Housing:
My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.
We urge a favorable report for S.886/H.1378 (An Act enabling local options for tenant protections).
Massachusetts has a lot to offer, but that does little if people can’t afford to live here. The US News & World Report’s annual state rankings put Massachusetts at #48 in affordability. [1] A worker earning minimum wage in Massachusetts would have to work 83 hours a week to afford a modest one-bedroom rental home at market rate (and 102 hours for a modest two-bedroom). [2]
Clearly, Massachusetts has an affordable housing crisis. This is unsustainable. It has led to expanding economic inequality, increased homelessness, and damage to our economy, as talented workers often leave the state for less expensive regions.
Solving this affordable housing crisis will require us to use every tool in the toolbox. That requires zoning reform that encourages the creation of walkable, sustainable, and inclusive communities. It requires public investment. And it requires strengthening tenant protections that ensure that communities can remain affordable, inclusive, and stable.
However, municipalities across Massachusetts are blocked from taking the necessary steps to address the housing crisis. The misguided statewide ban on rent stabilization policies and a stringent home rule system that prevents municipalities from passing their own laws to govern the basic aspects of civil affairs hamstring municipalities.
S.886/H.1378 provides the appropriate redress. It repeals the outdated and misguided statewide ban on rent stabilization policies and enables cities and towns to pass policies aimed to regulate rents, limit condo conversions, prevent landlords from evicting tenants without just cause (e.g., failure to pay rent, illegal activity), require landlords to inform tenants of their rights, and take other steps to protect tenants and ensure long-term affordability.
We cannot build our way out of the crisis alone because the people at the highest risk for displacement will already be pushed out before they can benefit from any medium to long-term reduction in rents.
The pandemic we have been living through for almost two years, moreover, has underscored the essential role of housing stability to public health: we cannot ask people to stay at home when they are sick or exposed if they do not afford a home to go back to.
There is a lot of fear-mongering around rent control, but I want to make a simple point. If you don’t think a landlord should be able to double or triple someone’s rent in a year after doing no work on the property, you believe in rent control, and the question is just a matter of percentages and exemptions. And the Tenant Protection Act would enable us to debate and answer that question.
On too many issues, Massachusetts is haunted by the ghosts of ill-advised ballot initiatives past. It’s 2022, and we need to act like it.
There is no silver bullet to solving our affordable housing crisis. But if we are to have a chance at solving it, we must empower municipalities to take action. We thus encourage you to give a favorable report to S.886 and H.1378.
2022 is going to be an eventful year. We’re kicking it off with our annual member meeting on Saturday, January 22, from 1 pm to 4 pm. We’ll have an update on our work from the past year as well as what’s in store for 2022. We’ll also be featuring interviews with 2022 Gubernatorial and Lt. Gubernatorial candidates.
The first segment of the Annual Member Meeting will offer members updates on our organization, plans, and a chance to meet nominees for the Board (to be voted on after). The remainder, the bulk of the meeting, is open to all for the candidate interviews.
Next Tuesday: Hearing on the Tenant Protection Act
Next Tuesday, the MA Legislature will hear testimony on the Tenant Protection Act (S.886/H.1378), a bill from Sen. Adam Gomez and Reps. Mike Connolly and Nika Elugardo that would lift the statewide ban on rent control and enable municipalities to take action to support housing stability in line with the needs and conditions of each community.
Here are ways that you can show support for the bill:
ways that you can show support for the bill:
Submit written testimony: Send in your comments and ask others to do the same. You can use the form here.
Testify at the hearing. You need to sign up by 5 pm today.
“Commission member Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, had a harsher response, calling it “deeply frustrating” and “a colossal failure” that the commission failed to recommend immediate reforms to qualified immunity. “The delay tactics that characterized this commission are really dangerous and harmful for people of color who are at risk of police brutality,” Espinoza-Madrigal said. “We need immediate changes to the qualified immunity doctrine, and this cannot be delayed for years to come.” “
“Unlike them, Baker, a former health care executive, doesn’t seem able to rise to the occasion. People with far less access to resources than Baker have for almost two years cared for each other by masking up, getting vaccinated, and getting tested. We elect our leaders to provide care and respond quickly in moments of crisis, not make excuses or pass the buck. Baker must step up and accept responsibility for this dangerous debacle, and fix it. None of us can afford for him to be a reluctant leader.”
“Between fiscal years 2016 and 2020, the average population of people in Department of Correction custody declined from 9,743 to 7,935, according to data published by the Special Commission on Correctional Funding. Over that same five-year span, the agency’s total spending increased from about $580 million to more than $732 million, driving up the cost per inmate from $59,535 in FY2016 to $92,368 in FY2020.”
“Re “New Year’s resolutions for the new mayor and the outgoing governor” (Editorial, Jan. 1): To follow up its 2022 resolutions for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Governor Charlie Baker, the Globe needs to create a list for the state Legislature. Leading the list should be legislative process reform; the residents of this state deserve — and don’t have — an open process that fairly weighs the interests of families and of corporate associations. Will the Globe create that list? Will it spotlight the lawmaking system’s perennial autocratic dysfunction? Will it point to needed changes? (See, for example, last January’s report from the Climate Social Science Network at Brown University, “Who’s Delaying Climate Action in Massachusetts? Twelve Findings.”)”
“At the start of the pandemic and in anticipation of the 2020 presidential election, lawmakers wisely brought the state’s absentee voting laws into the 21st century, allowing no-excuses mail-in voting and, for the first time, early voting in primary elections. The reforms, however, were only temporary — extended once to include last year’s municipal elections. But the law died on Dec. 15, and efforts to extend it permanently have stalled. The Senate, in its bill (passed last October), wants to add same-day voter registration to the package; the House, which voted earlier for most of those reforms, seems not amenable to the voter registration piece. All those Democrats squabbling over the shape of voting reforms is just unseemly.”
“We are tired of Band-Aid approaches from Baker and [Education Commissioner Jeff] Riley when it comes to facing the biggest public health threat of our time,” said MTA President Merrie Najimy in a statement.
“The state will provide only one COVID-19 test per school employee, instead of the two originally planned, as supply shortages continue to challenge efforts for a safe return to school, education officials confirmed Saturday.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education notified school superintendents Friday night that the department had received 227,166 tests from two manufacturers, enough to provide one to each teacher and staff member.”
“More than 1,300 people convicted of possession of less than two ounces of marijuana will have their criminal records cleared after Gov. Jared Polis announced Thursday he would issue a mass pardon.” MA, your turn.
“New England is warming significantly faster than global average temperatures, and that rate is expected to accelerate as more greenhouse gases are pumped into the atmosphere and dangerous cycles of warming exacerbate climate change, according to a new study.”
“Every year, Massachusetts prisoners file hundreds of grievances alleging all manner of mistreatment behind bars, from excessive force to racism to harassment — all at the hands of prison employees….And year after year, state records show, prison officials reject almost all of them.”
“Wu has shown no sign of backing down, and we are all better for it. But those of us who believe in science, public health, and solidarity as the way forward on the pandemic and other issues need to be more vocal in our support so that we can relegate the misinformation and invective to the mere noise that it is.”
